A Texas brewery was hit with threats and harassment after it refused to hold a rally that featured exonerated shooter Kyle Rittenhouse vehemently defending its decision.
Southern Star Brewing Co. of Conroe announced on Friday the cancellation of the upcoming “Rally Against Censorship” with Rittenhouse that has been booked at the brewery.
“It’s been kind of a shitstorm,” brewery CEO Dave Fougeron told The Texas Tribune in an interview Friday. “But now I’m more confident that I made the right decision.”
The brewery, which has been registered as a venue for the event, said in a statement on Twitter that it is “an apolitical organization, but we feel that this event does not reflect our own values, and we cannot in good faith continue to rent the space for the event.” ” He added: “We don’t do rallies, we make beer for people who like beer.”
In a highly controversial case, Rittenhouse was acquitted in 2021 for the fatal shooting of two unarmed protesters at a racial justice protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse, who is 17 years old, was armed with an AR-15 style rifle. He also wounded a third protester. He said he was defending himself.
Rittenhouse, who was reportedly added to the show’s lineup Wednesday, tweeted after Friday’s cancellation that he was being censored and that the brewery was a “woke man.”
Fougeron reiterated to the Tribune that the brewery is not political and aims to be a welcoming place for everyone.
“Our place is super inclusive,” he told the outlet. “We’re super pro-veteran, super pro-law enforcement. We try to be good people in the community. We’re friends with the firefighters, with the police department. … We have a lot of gay patrons who come because it’s a place of inclusivity. It’s crazy that we get threats from people.
The Rittenhouse rally is also scheduled to include leaders of TEXIT, a group that advocates for Texas to secede from the US, the Tribune reported.
Defiance Press, a right-wing local publisher, organized the event, according to the newspaper. The event will “definitely” be rescheduled elsewhere, organizers told the Tribune.